A History of Music and I, Part Four

I apologize for a lack of a picture to go with this blog post, and I have changed my mind and this post will focus on 7th and 8th grade years. There were two developments in my music career, one regarding piano and one regarding clarinet. About the piano, my third piano teacher decided to go pro rather than be a teacher, so we parted ways. He taught me some easy and moderate piano classics and the book he got me to use is very cool. Denes Agay's Music for Millions Volume 17 contains a lot of classics that almost any intermediate level and up pianist can play. With regard to band, 7th grade I was still near the top of the clarinet food chain and I did something for the first out of six times, I auditioned and made it in the All County Band. For those who live outside of Maryland (and other states that have county school systems), the public schools are divided by counties and Baltimore city, so the All County band is full of the best of the best musicians in the county. As I get older, I remember less about it than I used to, but I still have the audition music and proof of performance. At the end of the 7th grade, MacArthur Middle School's music program went down to Williamsburg to perform in the morning (and I was the first chair for once) then we spent a fun day at Busch Gardens. I got to ride the Griffon roller coaster, where the main feature is a 3 second overhang before falling down at a 90 degree angle and the Alpengeist, a floorless coaster that was my first.

The 8th grade had me pretty much on top of the Clarinet food chain, well actually I think I was second chair, but close enough. I auditioned for and made it to All County band again, but another challenge was thrown at me. Ms. Nash found some challenging music for me to perform at the county Solo and Ensemble festival. I chose a piece and had to practice with an accompanist. The first and only time I did this, I got a grade of 2, which to me is impressive as I got a medal. If I tried harder, I would have earned a 1 and a chance to perform at the state level Solo and Ensemble festival. The end of the year band trip for 8th grade was to Hersheypark and I got to be the first chair for the second time.

I'm sorry that this post came way later than the first three parts of the history of music and I, but I will try to finish the series within the next two weeks. I'm also making a major change to the original plan, but I will stop at Freshman year of college rather than going to the present day. Thank you for waiting!